Sectoral Analysis of the Cryptocurrency Market Using Minimum Spanning Tree

This study examined the interaction dynamics and clustering characteristics of cryptocurrencies using MST (Minimum Spanning Tree) analysis based on the daily closing prices of 67 cryptocurrencies traded on Binance. The study included ten cryptocurrencies from the gaming sector and 56 high-market-cap cryptocurrencies. While cryptocurrencies have been analysed from various perspectives using MST in the literature, sectoral analysis has been neglected. This study focused on the categorization of cryptocurrencies and directly on crypto games. According to the MST analysis, crypto games and decentralized exchanges exhibited significant clustering within themselves. Ethereum emerged as the cryptocurrency with the most connections on the network. ENJ held a central position within crypto games, and most crypto games showed clustering among themselves. The intuitive expectation was that Bitcoin would have more connections, dominating the cryptocurrency market. However, the analysis indicated that Ethereum occupies a central position in the cryptocurrency sector.